


Superball

by whoneedsapublisher



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22168993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoneedsapublisher/pseuds/whoneedsapublisher
Summary: Honoka energetically bouncing into Maki's life changed Maki's heart, and as her time at school ends and she meets Honoka again, she wonders if Honoka will have changed as well.
Relationships: Kousaka Honoka/Nishikino Maki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	Superball

Honoka had way too much energy. It was like twenty years ago someone had fired a bouncy ball out of a cannon directly into an iron plated box, and it still hadn’t stopped rebounding off the walls with enough force to leave dents.

And Honoka had certainly left a dent in Maki. From the first time they’d met, when Honoka ricocheted off the idea of being an idol and slammed into Maki’s heart with the force of a cannonball, warping her around the impact. From then on, there’d been a hole in a heart that she’d never noticed before, a hidden hollow core that had caved in on itself under the force of Honoka and left an obvious space where something should fit.

And she knew what that hole was shaped like.

She’d lied to herself about it for a while. In denial, she’d tried clumsily to fit various things into that gap. μ’s, for one. Not that joining had been a mistake- she loved μ’s, and she didn’t regret the time she’d spent together with them. But when she’d joined, she told herself that it was what she was missing. That her encounter with Honoka had made her realize that she was missing something because she wanted to be in a group like Honoka’s.

But that wasn’t true. The gap wasn’t in the shape of μ’s, or of her piano, or of the girls Maki had tried to date in highschool. It was in the shape that it had always been, the shape that had been staring her in the face ever since she’d seen it through a music room window.

The hole in Maki’s heart was Honoka shaped. And it was starting to hurt.

Honoka came to attend her graduation. Well, not just _her_ graduation, Maki reminded herself. Rin and Hanayo were graduating as well. Maki had been a little anxious about seeing Honoka again. It hadn’t been _that_ long since she’d left for college, but… what if she was _different_? What if she no longer fit the hole in Maki’s heart? What if her shape had changed, had been warped and dented from bouncing off of others, and she left Maki with a hole that nothing could fill?

So she forced herself not to scan the crowd for Honoka while the ceremony was going on. She didn’t want to find out while she was on stage. And when she left the hall, and she was sure Honoka would find her, her heart leapt in her throat as she nearly cried purely from the stress of it.

“Makiiiiiii!”

When Maki turned to see her, she laughed. She couldn’t help it. At first it was just a snort, then a giggle, and then she was doubled over laughing, the tears that had been pricking at her eyes streaming down her face as she laughed so hard that she could hardly breathe.

Umi and Kotori were with her, the third years not far behind. Nico had grown taller, surprisingly. Nozomi, wearing a tasteful amount of makeup and perfectly neat hair, looked almost startlingly mature. Eli had always looked like she could be a model, but now she looked like she’d stepped right off the front of a magazine. Umi, meanwhile, looked like she’d stepped out from behind the shelves in the library and was about to scold someone for talking too loudly. Even Kotori looked more mature, different in some way that Maki couldn’t quite place.

Honoka, though, hadn’t changed a bit. She looked a little older, sure, but the grin on her face was the same one that had been turned on Maki full force three years ago when Honoka had asked her to write μ’s a song for the first time. It was absurd how much she was the same. How perfectly she still fit into Maki’s heart.

“Eh?! Maki?” Honoka said, slightly taken aback. Maki could see Nico rolling her eyes at the whole thing until Rin captured the third years with an energetic tackle and nearly knocked Nico off her feet.

“You haven’t changed at all, Honoka,” Maki managed, choking the words out as she gasped for breath, trying to regain herself as she wiped the tears from eyes.

“Ehhhhh?! I’ve gotten a little more mature, right?” Honoka said, frowning. “You’re mean, Maki!”

“It was a compliment,” Maki said, smiling at her. “I love you the way you are, Honoka.”

Honoka blinked at her.

Maki paused, and then processed exactly what she’d said.

 _I love you_.

It had just slipped out. She’d planned how she was going to work up the courage to confess, and then Honoka had thrown her so off guard that she’d just said.

She felt her face heat up, practically bursting into flame. “I-” she stammered, holding her hands up defensively. “I meant- I mean- I just- t-that isn’t what I-”

“I love you too, Maki!” Honoka said, grinning at her and slipping right past Maki’s defensive flailing, slipping her arms over Maki’s shoulders and linking her hands behind Maki’s neck. “I love you a lot.”

“Eh? H-Honoka?”

Honoka closed her eyes and leaned closer, puckering her lips.

“Ueh?!” Maki panicked. Oh god, was Honoka going to kiss her?! Here?! _Now_?!

Honoka’s lips touched hers, and Maki froze up. That only made her panic _more_. She wasn’t kissing Honoka back! Honoka was going to think she hated her! But how was she supposed to kiss her? How did her lips even work? She couldn’t remember!

Finally, pathetically, she managed to push her face forward a little, pushing against Honoka’s lips. T-That had to count for something, right?!

Honoka pulled back a little a frowned. “...Maki?”

“W-What?” Maki said, turning her face away. Oh god, she couldn’t look Honoka in the face _now_. Not when she was so close, and they’d just… they’d just. “F-For your information, it’s not like I hated that, or anything! You just surprised me, is all!”

“Get a goddamn roo- Ow!”

Nico’s rude comment was cut off and a quick glance over at the others, where Nico was rubbing her head and glaring at Nozomi, filled in the blanks.

Oh god, they’d been _watching_.

“Uwagh…” Maki moaned, her face getting even hotter. They’d _all_ seen that…

“I’m glad you didn’t hate it,” Honoka said, suddenly a little shy. “Can I do it again, then?”

“No!” Maki said, hurriedly. “W-We’re in public, you know!”

“So it’s okay if we’re not in public?” Honoka asked eagerly.

“W-Well, I mean,” Maki mumbled. “...Yes.”

“Yay!” Honoka pulled her into a tight hug, and Maki wasn’t sure if she was going to die of happiness or embarrassment first.

Ultimately, it would be hours before they were alone, between meeting up with the others and going out to a restaurant together to celebrate. But even with the brain melting prospect of kissing Honoka again off the table, Maki felt a sensation that was new to her, and yet so familiar, and so right. With Honoka tucked up against her, a little ball of energy vibrating against her, Maki felt her body fit neatly into the dent in her heart.

Honoka had too much energy. But that was okay, because it meant that no matter how many times she flew off in random directions, she’d always bounce back to Maki. And Maki would be waiting with open arms and a perfectly shaped space for her.


End file.
